OPTIONS – August 2016

The OPTIONS Consortium objective is to develop a streamlined, adaptable product delivery platform for current and future ARV-based HIV prevention options, with a particular focus on women.

• LVCT Health plays key role in development of Kenya’s PrEP section within ARV guidelines.
• Value chain situation analysis toolkit available on PrEPWatch.
• PrEP modeling moves forward in Kenya and Zimbabwe.
• New resource submission added to PrEPWatch.

LVCT Health plays key role in development of Kenya’s PrEP section within ARV guidelines. In July, Kenya launched “Guidelines on use of ARV drugs for treating and preventing HIV infection in Kenya – 2016 edition.” LVCT Health was part of the core technical experts who developed content for the HIV Testing Services (HTS) and Oral Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) sections of the guidelines. The team also used lessons learned from its demonstration project to show that oral PrEP can be delivered to adolescent girls and young women to ensure this important population is included in PrEP rollout.

Value chain situation analysis toolkit available on PrEPWatch. The situation analysis toolkit that FSG developed is now available on PrEPWatch on the Guidelines & Tools for Program Planners page, as well as the MPii Tools & Resources page. The toolkit is designed to help implementers plan for oral PrEP introduction and rollout. It includes three templates to support the value chain situation analysis process, from data collection to presentation of findings. Completed situation analyses for oral PrEP in Kenya and Zimbabwe may also be found on PrEPWatch.

PrEP modeling moves forward in Kenya and Zimbabwe. OPTIONS modelers from Avenir and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine are working closely with the country teams in Kenya and Zimbabwe and have started government engagement to ensure that the modeling work meets the countries’ respective needs. Using the Institute for Disease Modeling Epidemiological Modeling (EMOD) software, the modeling team has begun parameterizing the models and are exploring innovative ways of looking at the impact of PrEP for specific subpopulations of AGYW.

New resource submission added to PrEPWatch. Have a resource for PrEPWatch? Now you can submit your materials directly through the MPii Tools & Resources web page. Click on the “Submit your resource” button at the bottom of the page, fill out the form, upload your file(s), and click “submit.”